movie and a meal

There are over 100 channels here, never a dull moment...its Friday and we have a play date for the girls....

after movie, we go to a country restaurant, which is only ten minutes away. There are many restaurants like this in Hualien, run by husband & wife. Every one is unique and the people who run them are also incredibly unique......Style of cooking is a blend of east & west. Cooking methods and spices are definitively Oriental, but served in a Western style on a platter with starch, veggies and condiments. Dinner for the six of us cost $30US, no tips. Ray Rombough should like it here: food is cheap and no tipping.

After dinner, Frankie and her two friends put on a show......these are the two sisters who just returned from the US a year ago, and a good opportunity to practise their English together.

our daily lives

We are getting to know Hualien better as we discover many new places...

Like Victoria, the city itself is not big, which is like a downtown area with shops, entertainment, and government offices. It is the surrounding municipalities which make up Hualien county which we have yet to discover. This fountain was the center of old Hualien because this is where the train station was. Due to the increased traffic, there is a new train station and life centers around there which is a few blocks away.

There are a few dim sum places but not many Cantonese people. We met one fellow from Hong Kong who is a teacher here and that is all so far. It is quite a novelty to speak a foreign language here as most folks are not familiar with anything other than Mandarin, Taiwanese, and some Hakka. Many elderly (over 70) still speak Japanese because Taiwan was governed by Japanese for fifty years until after the war.

We have enrolled Frankie to a Catholic private school which is five minutes from our house. This school comes highly recommended as the academic is tops in Hualien. There is an English teacher here from Vancouver, who speaks little Mandarin, so, Frankie has been an interpretor between him and the students. Naturally, Frankie gets a lot of attention from both staff and students here which is a nice way to break the ice and the cultural barrier. We signed up Frankie for two weeks of summer camp at her school, and she is really enjoying it.

10sne1?

Tennis anyone?
Parts of Asia play tennis with a rubber ball, which is like playing squash with tennis rackets, not easy. Here is a local school tournament and the kids are pretty good...

Lets party!

Our friends invited us to a KTV...

Rooms are large and airy, 6 hours including a buffet costed us $70US for the eight of us. A good way to enjoy a cool afternoon indoors....

A very popular song with the kids.....

the adults get in the act also......

Time to get outside again, its now near 5pm and its much cooler with a breeze. We took the kids to a nearby river (creek).....

We wrap the day up with an awesome dinner at a local farm. They raise their own cows and grow their own veggies, and they serve, well, you guessed it, beef in all different style and flavors. Boy, is it good!!! Everything here is organic and have no growth hormones or pesticides.....

Pearl Harbor!!!

Not......
One of the excitements about Hualien is the air base here where F15s train daily and put on quite a show over the city. Also there are periodic " air raid drills" in preparation of attacks by (communist China?) foreign enemies.....

When the air siren goes off, the whole city is under curfew with no one allowed outside except military and police. The whole town stands still and it is dead quiet, really weird. Life resumes only after another siren goes off, which takes about half hour, indicating the drill is over. Frankie and her friends enjoyed that, as there was a sleep over.....

Bebe is nine and Yoyo is eight. They are daughters of Dr. Pong, who has just returned from USA with his family a year ago, therefore, it is great opportunity for the three girls to practise their English together.

earthquake!

We have already experienced a few earthquakes since we arrived two weeks ago. Kinda getting used to it. It shakes for about 10 seconds, and the chandelier in my bedroom rattles. The strongest one was last Sunday when it was about 4.5 on the Richter scale. According to local folks, these frequent but small shakes are harmless and actually beneficial because they allow pressure to dissipate, so that there is no build up of energy for anything catastrophic. Lets hope so.

O Canada!

Well folks, we found one Canadian restaurant here five minutes from our house.
Its owned by a fellow from Nova Scotia, who married a local girl.
Very good omelets, bacon and eggs, pancakes, eggs benedict, and for lunch, homemade burgers, salads, and oven fired pizzas. Its not cheap, breakfast for three costed $20US, which is five times of what local breakfasts cost.
The place is busy, as local people are always looking for something different.

new toy

Just bought this amazing juicer, which is unlike any others. It makes excellent fresh juice in seconds, and it is easy to clean up.

It also makes instant soups and Chinese herbal remedies, without the long hours of simmering. Best part is that all the nutritional properties are there without oxidation which occurs in most juicers, and in traditional cooking methods. Costs only $160Cdn. Hualien is big on organic farming, and we buy local organic fruits and veggies for this, which is a very nice supplement to our constant eating out and heavy dependence on fast food; such as this famous "chung yiou bing"...

Hot pot lunch

We are at downtown Hualien today shopping, and decided to try the local hot pot.




Lunch for the three of us costed $10US, and it was a very good lunch. Next time I will bring a towel, because although the air con was cold, I sweat like a dog eating hot pot in the summer.


and for breakfast, this place is fast, hot, and good. I usually have a small plate of rice noodle, a bowl of pork blood soup, and a cold soy milk, all for $2US. The man to the right is the owner, hell of a nice guy, greets everyone who walks in, and thanks everyone upon leaving. Breakfast rush is usually swamp city, with workers and students stopping by on their scooters, and grab something on the run. This guy can be sweating and working his ass off, but you cannot take the smile off his face. He truly enjoys his work, along with his wife and daughter. They start prepping around 3am, and the shop opens at 5:30am. It closes at 11am and they go home for the day. When things slow down after 9am, the owner disappears sometimes. I asked his wife where he goes, and she said he is checking on his stocks. Taiwanese people, like most Asians, love gambling, and the stock market is a casino at your finger tips these days........

Here we are at Hualien port, not much but a row of warehouses just like in the movies where they hide the kidnapped victims. Frankie said that. That's why she was staying close to the car in order to flee......

a typical side street in Hualien city......first thing comes to mind is...quaint. Hualien is an old town and time stands still in many places. There are some new buildings, but due to height restrictions, there are only a few tall condos and office towers. These developers who got away with it must have bribed their way out......

at each intersection, scooters are jockeying for positions and gun their 100cc motor as soon as it turns green. They go anywhere and everywhere. But as a driver of a car, I really don't have to do much because they watch for you. Unlike the traffic chaos in mainland China, folks here are very agressive but very defensive. Very few run red lights and most are skillful drivers.

our visit to Farglory hotel and Ocean park

It was a beautiful day around 30 degree, we decided to visit Ocean park which is 30 minutes drive from our house.

To get some cool air, we went inside for afternoon tea. Think rich dad poor dad for a minute: our lunch at a neighborhood buffett was $6US for the three of us; afternoon tea here costed us $30US, hmmmmmm...

Just as we had our last sip of tea, we looked outside and whoa, the perfect summer day has now turned into a perfect storm.....

as we were leaving the hotel, rain has started and we could barely see Hualien city below us...

driving home in the driving rain was quite a challenge, but we managed as we cruised home with auto-pilot, then the car parks itself in front of our condo.